Stadium Construction Discussion (No PSL/Seat selection posts)

[SoCal Deek]

7 minutes ago, Chicharito said:

The stadium is starting to become behind schedule. No contracts for mechanical’s have been awarded yet. The contracts were supposed to be awarded on Halloween and here we are January 2nd with nothing. The more they delay the bigger the supply issues become. 

Interesting. Not living in WNY anymore I’m wondering how you know this. Has the local media been reporting on it? Seems like a lot of inside baseball gossip. 

[The Wiz]

13 minutes ago, Chicharito said:

The stadium is starting to become behind schedule. No contracts for mechanical’s have been awarded yet. The contracts were supposed to be awarded on Halloween and here we are January 2nd with nothing. The more they delay the bigger the supply issues become. 

Take it for what is worth, poloncarz said they were ahead of schedule because of the mild winter a few days ago.

 

https://www.wgrz.com/video/news/local/as-seen-on-tv/71-55d2756d-38bb-40a7-bff7-9ad034fa9e69

 

For those that don't want to watch: specifically said they poured the concrete a few weeks earlier than expected and material availability would be the only thing that they are worried about.

 

Edited January 2 by The Wiz

[Blank Stare]

46 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

Because most of you know I’m very much into this stuff, see if you can google the new year-in-construction-review progress video just posted on the New Everton Football Club waterfront stadium. I cannot help but be envious of what they’re creating and can’t help but think of how cool something like it would’ve been on a very similar downtown Buffalo waterfront site. The Everton stadium will open this coming summer and so the last months progress shows seats and video screens being installed. In a word….wow! 

Thanks for the heads up on this build! I checked it out and it was really cool.

 

I’ve said it a couple times in this thread, but a lack of a VR/fly-through at this point just doesn’t make any sense. Even objectively speaking, I think you’d have to say the Bills have done a pretty poor job generating much excitement around the new facility. They’ve given us almost nothing. A few stills. Truly baffling. Now, we all know Bills fans are a rare breed who continue to show up and show out no matter what, but good luck with selling those high $ PSLs if people have zero expectation or idea of what they are getting. How hard would it be to throw a live cam up at the very least? It seems like once Kim had her unfortunate medical issue, and they moved on from Ron Raccuia, that anything stadium-related (outside of the actual construction) has been a complete afterthought. If either of them were still involved as originally planned, I think this whole thing would be going much differently from a fan experience perspective. 

[Chicharito]

3 hours ago, SoCal Deek said:

Interesting. Not living in WNY anymore I’m wondering how you know this. Has the local media been reporting on it? Seems like a lot of inside baseball gossip. 

Buffalo building trades council

[May Day 10]

3 hours ago, Blank Stare said:

Thanks for the heads up on this build! I checked it out and it was really cool.

 

I’ve said it a couple times in this thread, but a lack of a VR/fly-through at this point just doesn’t make any sense. Even objectively speaking, I think you’d have to say the Bills have done a pretty poor job generating much excitement around the new facility. They’ve given us almost nothing. A few stills. Truly baffling. Now, we all know Bills fans are a rare breed who continue to show up and show out no matter what, but good luck with selling those high $ PSLs if people have zero expectation or idea of what they are getting. How hard would it be to throw a live cam up at the very least? It seems like once Kim had her unfortunate medical issue, and they moved on from Ron Raccuia, that anything stadium-related (outside of the actual construction) has been a complete afterthought. If either of them were still involved as originally planned, I think this whole thing would be going much differently from a fan experience perspective. 

 

I wonder if they just eliminated those line items from the architect/engineer budget to save some money.  They already got their public funds and probably figure that a flythrough now would not influence ticket buying behavior when it opens.  

[LabattBlue]

Listening to state sponsored Bills radio while driving. They just had Thurman on.  Considering his company is playing a big role in stadium construction, you would think the topic would have come up during his two segments as a guest…nope, nada, nothing.  

[mrags]

11 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

Listening to state sponsored Bills radio while driving. They just had Thurman on.  Considering his company is playing a big role in stadium construction, you would think the topic would have come up during his two segments as a guest…nope, nada, nothing.  

I didn’t listen. But what’s even more interesting hearing this. Isn’t that it wasn’t brought up to him at all. It’s that he didn’t bring it up at all. 

[Blank Stare]

57 minutes ago, May Day 10 said:

 

I wonder if they just eliminated those line items from the architect/engineer budget to save some money.  They already got their public funds and probably figure that a flythrough now would not influence ticket buying behavior when it opens.  

Could be. Inexplicable to me to this point. 

[RiotAct]

the eventual new Highmark Stadium was what Churchill was really talking about when he said “An enigma, shrouded in a riddle, wrapped in mystery”.

[mrags]

5 hours ago, SoCal Deek said:

Because most of you know I’m very much into this stuff, see if you can google the new year-in-construction-review progress video just posted on the New Everton Football Club waterfront stadium. I cannot help but be envious of what they’re creating and can’t help but think of how cool something like it would’ve been on a very similar downtown Buffalo waterfront site. The Everton stadium will open this coming summer and so the last months progress shows seats and video screens being installed. In a word….wow! 

I couldn’t sit and watch all 16min of the vid I saw. But looked pretty cool. I’ll continue to say I have no doubt we will end up with an awesome stadium. But could have been so much more 

[SoCal Deek]

11 minutes ago, mrags said:

I couldn’t sit and watch all 16min of the vid I saw. But looked pretty cool. I’ll continue to say I have no doubt we will end up with an awesome stadium. But could have been so much more 

You can fast forward to the end, or just google the renderings. What I find interesting about the Everton facility is that it's waterfront setting in that traditionally blue-collar town is virtually identical to what was being proposed for the Buffalo Waterfront site. I am not implying that what the Bills are doing now isn't going to be a vast improvement over the current stadium but if people wonder what a waterfront facility might have looked like, they need look no further than the Everton videos/renderings. Again....pretty darn cool! 

[PromoTheRobot]

4 hours ago, Blank Stare said:

Thanks for the heads up on this build! I checked it out and it was really cool.

 

I’ve said it a couple times in this thread, but a lack of a VR/fly-through at this point just doesn’t make any sense. Even objectively speaking, I think you’d have to say the Bills have done a pretty poor job generating much excitement around the new facility. They’ve given us almost nothing. A few stills. Truly baffling. Now, we all know Bills fans are a rare breed who continue to show up and show out no matter what, but good luck with selling those high $ PSLs if people have zero expectation or idea of what they are getting. How hard would it be to throw a live cam up at the very least? It seems like once Kim had her unfortunate medical issue, and they moved on from Ron Raccuia, that anything stadium-related (outside of the actual construction) has been a complete afterthought. If either of them were still involved as originally planned, I think this whole thing would be going much differently from a fan experience perspective. 

 

It's not like the stadium opens next month. They have time. All that happened is a missed (self-imposed) deadline. But yes, it's weird.

[Beast]

11 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

You can fast forward to the end, or just google the renderings. What I find interesting about the Everton facility is that it's waterfront setting in that traditionally blue-collar town is virtually identical to what was being proposed for the Buffalo Waterfront site. I am not implying that what the Bills are doing now isn't going to be a vast improvement over the current stadium but if people wonder what a waterfront facility might have looked like, they need look no further than the Everton videos/renderings. Again....pretty darn cool! 

That is a beautiful stadium but I really am glad the Bills decided not to build on the waterfront in Buffalo. That would have been one cold ass stadium with the wind whipping off the lake.

[PromoTheRobot]

1 minute ago, Beast said:

That is a beautiful stadium but I really am glad the Bills decided not to build on the waterfront in Buffalo. That would have been one cold ass stadium with the wind whipping off the lake.

 

You said it. Tailgating would be like an Arctic expedition in December and January.

[mrags]

4 minutes ago, Beast said:

That is a beautiful stadium but I really am glad the Bills decided not to build on the waterfront in Buffalo. That would have been one cold ass stadium with the wind whipping off the lake.

The point is it would have been a dome. 

 

2 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

You said it. Tailgating would be like an Arctic expedition in December and January.

Don’t worry, with the price of tickets and PSLs in the new stadium as well as mostly team run parking, the majority of crowds at Bills games after the new stadium is built will be the wine and cheese crowd that show up 30 minutes before kickoff. 

[PBF81]

11 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

It's not like the stadium opens next month. They have time. All that happened is a missed (self-imposed) deadline. But yes, it's weird.

 

They originally said that the VR Tours would be available last March I think it was, Spring anyway.  We're coming up on a year after that.  

 

We're all curious, but the big mystery seems to be why they would be holding it back.  It's being built, under construction, yet no great details have been provided as to what the final product will look like.  Other stadium projects have provided the info when they've had it, for sure well before now in their projects, past and current.  

 

Yet here it's some big mystery.  It definitely begs the question as to why.  

 

The only logical explanation as to why they'd want to wait would be a "big reveal" of sorts, but that's no possible given the monthly or so drone updates.  

 

It's just odd.  

 

 

2 minutes ago, mrags said:

Don’t worry, with the price of tickets and PSLs in the new stadium as well as mostly team run parking, the majority of crowds at Bills games after the new stadium is built will be the wine and cheese crowd that show up 30 minutes before kickoff. 

 

It's definitely going to be interesting.  

 

 

[mrags]

1 minute ago, PBF81 said:

 

They originally said that the VR Tours would be available last March I think it was, Spring anyway.  We're coming up on a year after that.  

 

We're all curious, but the big mystery seems to be why they would be holding it back.  It's being built, under construction, yet no great details have been provided as to what the final product will look like.  Other stadium projects have provided the info when they've had it, for sure well before now in their projects, past and current.  

 

Yet here it's some big mystery.  It definitely begs the question as to why.  

 

The only logical explanation as to why they'd want to wait would be a "big reveal" of sorts, but that's no possible given the monthly or so drone updates.  

 

It's just odd.  

 

 

 

It's definitely going to be interesting.  

 

 

I think it’s going to be hilarious actually. The expectations that people have are not reasonable. The crowd at games in the new stadium is going to be significantly more tame than the barbarians that everyone expects. 

[LabattBlue]

13 minutes ago, PBF81 said:

 

They originally said that the VR Tours would be available last March I think it was, Spring anyway.  We're coming up on a year after that.  

 

We're all curious, but the big mystery seems to be why they would be holding it back.  It's being built, under construction, yet no great details have been provided as to what the final product will look like.  Other stadium projects have provided the info when they've had it, for sure well before now in their projects, past and current.  

 

Yet here it's some big mystery.  It definitely begs the question as to why.  

 

The only logical explanation as to why they'd want to wait would be a "big reveal" of sorts, but that's no possible given the monthly or so drone updates.  

 

It's just odd.  

 

 

IMO it is all about the hundreds of millions in estimated cost overruns.  One of three things will happen…

 

1 - Pegula absorbs all the overrun costs, stadium stays as designed, and speculated PSL/tix prices stay at whatever level they may have had in in mind last spring. 

 

2 - PSL and game tix will go up even more than expected because of the overruns(this may be the reason why the VR pitch center for STH has not opened yet). 

 

3 - Stadium amenities/bells and whistles get downgraded to minimize the amount of overruns.  
 

 

Edited January 2 by LabattBlue

[Blank Stare]

7 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

IMO it is all about the hundreds of millions in estimated cost overruns.  One of three things will happen…

 

1 - Pegula absorbs all the overrun costs. 

 

2 - PSL and game tix will go up even more than expected because of the overruns(this may be the reason why the VR pitch center for STH has not opened yet). 

 

3 - Stadium amenities/bells and whistles get downgraded to minimize the amount of overruns.  
 

 

Cost was my thinking too. We already know a stadium is being built, but they’ve not gone on record with much detail (outside of the Buffalo statue) to manage expectations. In other words, certain things will be cut if these cost overruns get crazy, so don’t get your heart set on any one thing - amenity, design, feature, or otherwise - because everything is subject to change. That’s bunk from a fan perspective, but likely what’s driving the secrecy and scant details. 

[PromoTheRobot]

19 minutes ago, mrags said:

Don’t worry, with the price of tickets and PSLs in the new stadium as well as mostly team run parking, the majority of crowds at Bills games after the new stadium is built will be the wine and cheese crowd that show up 30 minutes before kickoff. 

 

You say it like it's a bad thing. My days of hard tailgating in the elements are past. 

20 minutes ago, PBF81 said:

 

They originally said that the VR Tours would be available last March I think it was, Spring anyway.  We're coming up on a year after that.  

 

We're all curious, but the big mystery seems to be why they would be holding it back.  It's being built, under construction, yet no great details have been provided as to what the final product will look like.  Other stadium projects have provided the info when they've had it, for sure well before now in their projects, past and current.  

 

Yet here it's some big mystery.  It definitely begs the question as to why.  

 

The only logical explanation as to why they'd want to wait would be a "big reveal" of sorts, but that's no possible given the monthly or so drone updates.  

 

It's just odd.  

 

 

 

It's definitely going to be interesting.  

 

 

 

I wonder if they haven't yet finalized ticket and PSL pricing? The worst thing that could happen is a lot of unsold seats because they got greedy.